Double Indemnity

Description

A new kind of film emerged from Hollywood in the early 1940s, thrillers that derived their plots from the hard-boiled school of crime fiction but with a style all their own. Appearing in 1944, 'Double Indemnity 'was a key film in the definition of the genre that came to be known as film noir. Its script creates two unforgettable criminal characters: the cynically manipulative Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) and the likeable but amoral Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray). Billy Wilder's brilliant direction enmeshes them in chiaroscuro patterns, the bright California sun throwing shadows of venetian blinds across dusty rooms, shafts of harsh lamplight cutting through the night. Richard Schickel traces in fascinating detail the genesis of the film: its literary origins in the crime fiction of the 1930s, the difficult relations between Wilder and his scriptwriter Raymond Chandler, the casting of a reluctant Fred MacMurray, the late decision to cut from the film the expensively shot final sequence of Neff's execution. This elegantly written account, copiously illustrated, confirms a new the status of 'Double Indemnity' as an undisputed classic. Review: Introduction to a Great Film Noir - Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity is one of the great film noirs although the phrase was not in use apparently when the film was made. This is one of the many interesting facts to be gleamed from Richard Schickel's monograph. He is particularly good on the relationship between Wilder and the films writer Raymond Chandler and the way they reshaped James M. Cain's original. If you love the film as I do this is pretty much essential reading though I was disappointed both with the length of the book and the inferior quality of the photographs. Still worth buying though. Review: Disappointing - A scattergun approach to this analysis of Double Indemnity, which shows its datedness through lacking any reference to feminism and the image and character of the femme fatale. Very little insight into the Wilder/Chandler relationship - why did Wilder take the lead credit for the screenplay - and reads more like an extended popularist feature article than serious analysis. And this from the BFI!